danda
Danda literally means a staff or rod. In the Dharmashastra and Arthashastra literature it means punishment and, more widely, the state's power of coercion. Manu describes danda as the king's instrument that protects all creatures and keeps people within their dharma; without it, the strong would devour the weak (the “law of the fishes”, matsya nyaya).
The texts insist that danda be applied with due regard to the offence, the offender's status and capacity, time and place, and that unjust punishment destroys the king. Students meet the word in jurisprudence papers on ancient Indian legal theory, alongside dharma and dandaniti.
Example
Manu treats danda as the force that keeps society from sliding into matsya nyaya, where the big fish eat the small.
See also
dandaniti · dharma · dharmashastra
Read more in the study notes
- Plaint: its parts, return and rejection (Order VII) (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- Dharma and Indian legal thought, ancient and modern (Legal Theory)
- Notion of punishment in law: meaning, history and purpose (Penology and Victimology)
- Obligations of the State and of citizens: monarchy, individualism, socialism and the welfare State (Political Science - State and Political Obligations)
- Justice: meaning, kinds, and ancient, medieval and modern interpretations (Political Science - State and Political Obligations)
- Ancient Indian political thought and the Saptanga theory (Political Science - Theory and Thoughts)